SSD - moving unallocated space... (SOLVED)

[tenfoot]

Using Sparky Linux v5.3 Mate.

/device/sda is a SSD of 256GB.

/device/sda has three partitions and three unallocated spaces - see below

Code Select Expand

sda1 (49.30GiB)contains LinuxMint, which used to be my primary operating system.
unallocated 58.39GiB
sda2  (1.5GiB) is the swap partition.
unallocated 3.10GiB
sda3 (101.45GiB) is the SparkyLinux installation, which is now my primary operating system.
unallocated 9.77GiB

I want to increase the size of sda3 but, at present can only do so by using the 9.77GiB unallocated space below it.  So, my question is: Is it possible to move the other two unallocated spaces and merge them with the third, giving me an available total of 71.26GiB unformatted space, so that I can increase the size of sda3?


Modified 07:28 NZT 26 Jul 2018

[paxmark1]

It's easier to view if you format it as code   - use the sharp button above. example below.
partial output of nano /etc/fstab

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# <file system> <mount point>   <type>  <options>       <dump>  <pass>

/dev/mapper/raunes--vg-root /               ext4    errors=remount-ro 0       1
# /boot was on /dev/sda2 during installation
UUID=fa07f78d-0380-431b-95dc-22ad4aa603da /boot           ext2    defaults        0       2

# /boot/efi was on /dev/sda1 during installation
UUID=4117-423C  /boot/efi       vfat    umask=0077      0       1

/dev/mapper/raunes--vg-home /home           ext4    defaults        0       2
/dev/mapper/raunes--vg-swap_1 none            swap    sw              0       0

/dev/sr0        /media/cdrom0   udf,iso9660 user,noauto     0       0


You are not using lvm, so you could backup (most important) and then use parted or gparted.
It is going to be a bit of work.  Things can go wrong, it is crucial to back up.

It might just be easier to back up and just do a re-install. I would get rid of the LinuxMint, but I am biased by having to use the 17 version at work.

And for the future, if you do back up and re-install,   if you wish to learn and grow best practices to utilize, you might want to try an install with lvm (logical volume management).  Unfortunately I have had problems in past with calamares and lvm.  lvm is really nice for growing, shrinking and even moving to other devices.  Your /home partition could be on 3 different disks or parts of 3 different disks. 

Gparted will do it for you, but it will take several steps.  Plenty of info on web on gparted.  If others have better ideas, hopefully they will also post.

[tenfoot]

Hi Paxmark1

Original post modified as you suggested.

[tenfoot]

Delighted to report that I have now accomplished the task. This is what I did

(a) deleted Swap

(b) ADDED the unallocated space below sda3 to sda3 using Gparted, by right-clicking on sda3 and selecting Resize and added the space by moving the right arrow to the far right (this added the unallocated space below sda3 to sda3)

(c) ADDED the unallocated space above to sda3 to sda3 using Gparted, by right-clicking on sda3 and select Resize and adding the space by moving the left arrow to the far left (which added the unallocated space before sda3 to sda3)

This gave me just the two partitions (/sda1 Linux Mint and  /sda3 Sparky Linux) but no Swap and no unallocated space.  As the drive was a SSD, I'd always kept an unallocated space of approximately 10% of the drive size.  So

(d) Created an unallocated space of sufficient size to take into account these two factors by resizing /sda3 and then from that space created a Swap partition of 1.56GiB (/sda2), leaving unallocated space of about 10% of the SSD size of 256GB. l

I'm a happy geriatric :-) and have marked the original post as SOLVED.